Fit camp coaches must meet criteria

Summer sports camps at OCCC take some planning, said OCCC’s Sport and Recreation Specialist Eric Watson.

And, Watson said, in his 10 years at OCCC, he has always been involved in that planning.

“My responsibility,” he said, “is to plan the summer camp schedule … which consists of the sport camps, the recreational camps, and … the occasional all-day camp.”

He said he also personally finds and hires the coaches who take part in the sports camps.

“I go through the schools,” he said. “I have a good rapport with a lot of schools, a lot of coaches around the school system, and that’s what I go for.”

Watson said he hires certain coaches for the different camps.

“There are two positions I hire for,” he said. “One is Sport Camp Instructor and the other is a Recreational Camp Instructor.

“The sport camp instructor [is] just one title under which I hire a variety of coaches to teach the sport camps according to their skill.

“The Recreational Camp instructors are the ones that are required to have a teacher’s certificate and a physical education background.”

Watson said, within the sports camps, there are two multi-sports camps that take place in July.

“That’s a camp where we offer two different sports in the same week in order for kids to get exposure to two different elements,” he said.

“Some kids probably don’t regularly try some of those sports, so that’s why we ended up having a week that combined it and gave those kids an opportunity to experience a different sport that they might not have experience in.

“Multi-sports 1 takes place the week of July 7, and Multi-sports 2 takes place the week of July 21,” he said.